Ferrari OF THE KNIFE WORLD
Rarely in any endeavor does a man’s name become synonymous with his craft, but say Loveless and the recognition is instant.
BLADE Magazine Cutlery Hall-Of-Fame© member Robert Waldorf “Bob” Loveless towers head and shoulders above just about anyone else who considers themselves a member of that small circle known as bench or custom knifemakers. When Loveless died of lung cancer at age 81 in 2010, The Wall Street Journal called his iconic drop-point hunter—Bob’s name for it was dropped hunter—“the apogee of the knifemaker’s art.”
Loveless was a multifaceted man who could tell a story with tthe bbest of them and tell a man off in a heartbeat, his gruff manner a characteristic that at times was as recognizable as the varied maker’s marks that emblazoned his blades through more than 60 years in the shop.
“He was one of a kind,” remembered Cutlery Hall-Of-Famer Dan Delavan of plazacutlery.com, “talking without his teeth in at Guild meetings and telling iit like it was at the time.”
Loveless was born on Jan. 2, 1929, in Warren, Ohio. At the age of 14 he altered his birth certificate to join the Merchant Marine, later serving as an air traffic c
